Guan Yu is the "martial saint" of the mainland, and folklore has spread his allusions such as "wen wine beheading Huaxiong", "cutting six generals through five levels", and "killing Yan Liang and cursing Wen Ugly". Most of these deeds are fabricated and are not true stories. Guan Yu in the history of Zhengshi is also a very powerful general, he once flooded the Seventh Army in the Battle of Xiangfan, and was greatly defeated by Ban and Pound, for which he threatened Huaxia. Cao Wei had a famous general whose strategy and achievements could be compared with Guan Yu's, who was in the Battle of Hefei, who defeated Sun Quan with few victories and great victories, and threatened Zhang Liao in Jiangdong.
Guan Yu was the best general of the Shu Han Dynasty, and Zhang Liao was the most outstanding general under Cao Cao. In the history of the Three Kingdoms, which of the two is better?
First, Zhang Liao in the history of zhengyi
Zhang Liao was a native of Yanmen County, a descendant of Nie Yi, the initiator of the Western Han Dynasty's "Mayi Conspiracy", whose family changed the surname of Zhang to avoid disaster.
During his lifetime, Zhang Liao followed many lords, such as Ding Yuan, He Jin, Dong Zhuo, Lü Bu, and Cao Cao. Under Ding Yuan, He Jin, and Dong Zhuo, Zhang Liao had no outstanding record, and under Lü Bu, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun joined forces to defeat Liu Bei and Xiahou Huan, who came to the rescue. After arriving under Cao Cao's account, Zhang Liao had a stage to show his skills, and eventually grew into a top famous general of Weizhen Jiangdong.
After Zhang Liao went to Cao Cao's account, he made great achievements for Cao Cao to defeat Yuan Shao and win the Battle of Guandu and other wars. After Yuan Shao's death, Cao Cao took advantage of the infighting between Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan's brothers and sent troops to attack them. After Yuan Shang's defeat, he fled to Liucheng and joined forces with Wu Huan against Cao Cao. In order to cut the grass and remove the roots, Cao Cao personally led a large army to conquest Yuan Shang, Yuan Xi and Wu Huan in Liucheng.
In the twenty-eighth year of Jian'an, when Cao Cao took the lead in his troops to climb the White Wolf Mountain, he encountered the main army of Wu Huan. The combat effectiveness of the Wuhuan cavalry was very strong, and the number was several times that of the Cao army. When the generals of the Cao Army saw the sudden appearance of the Wuhuan army, they were immediately frightened, and everyone did not dare to engage the Wuhuan soldiers, but wanted to wait for the follow-up troops to arrive and then engage the Wuhuan soldiers. Zhang Liao felt that the opportunity could not be lost, and the Cao army should take advantage of the untidy position of Hu Yu and attack Wu Huan, otherwise, when Wu Huan lined up the battle formation, it would not be easy to win.
Cao Cao felt that Zhang Liao's words were not unreasonable, so he handed over his own sword to Zhang Liao and asked him to command the troops to fight. Zhang Liao's sudden attack caught the Wuhuan army off guard, causing them to fall into a panic. Wu Huandan, known as "Xiao Wu", was also beheaded by Zhang Liao in the rebel army. This battle made Zhang Liao's reputation greatly enhanced, and he became a national hero who was comparable to Huo. At the same time, it also made Wu Huan begin to be jealous of the Central Plains soldiers. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Central Plains became a pot of porridge, but the Wuhuan, Xianbei and other ethnic groups did not dare to invade on a large scale.
In the fourteenth year of Jian'an, Zhang Liao quelled the rebellion of Chen Lan, Mei Cheng, and others for Cao Cao.
In the eighteenth year of Jian'an, Sun Quan, who was not willing to live in a remote corner of Jiangdong, personally led a large army to attack Hefei. At that time, Cao Cao only left Zhang Liao 7,000 soldiers and horses to guard Against Jiangdong. Sun Quan led tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, but was defeated by Zhang Liao many times, and could not capture Hefei, which Zhang Liao was defending.
Later, a plague appeared among the soldiers of Jiangdong, and Sun Quan, who had been invincible for a long time, withdrew the main force from the battlefield, and he only took a few thousand soldiers and stayed in Xiaoyaojin.
After Zhang Liao found out, he led 800 people to kill Sun Quan. Sun Quan panicked in an instant, and ran away on his horse, instead of Fighting to the Death with Gan Ning and other generals, Sun Quan might have become a prisoner of Zhang Liao's order. After this battle, Zhang Liaowei shook Jiangdong, leaving a deep psychological shadow on the people of Jiangdong. The child is crying, and as long as the adult says that Zhang Liao is coming, the child is scared and does not dare to cry, which is the allusion of "Zhang Liao stops crying".
Second, Guan Yu in the history of zheng
Stories such as Guan Yu's "single knife to the meeting" and "Wen Jiu beheading Huaxiong" are false, but Guan Yu was a famous general of "ten thousand enemies" in the Three Kingdoms period, which is worthy of the name. During the Three Kingdoms period, Guo Jia, a strategist under Cao Cao, commented on Guan Yu: "Zhang Fei and Guan Yu are enemies of thousands of people, and they are used to die for them", liu Ye commented that Guan Yu was "brave enough to crown the three armies and become a general", Guan Yu was strong in martial arts, and few people could match them. At the same time, Guan Yu also killed the enemy general Yan Liang in the Battle of Guandu, which also proved that Guan Yu was superior in martial arts and was a famous general of "ten thousand enemies".
During his lifetime, Guan Yu participated in many battles, he followed Liu Bei to conquer the Yellow Turban Army in the early days, and later followed Liu Bei against Lü Bu, Yuan Shu and other princes, and made great achievements. After Liu Bei, with the assistance of Zhuge Liang, took Jing and Yi Prefectures, Guan Yu guarded Jing Prefecture for Liu Bei.
Guan Yu's pinnacle battle was the Battle of Xiangfan. After Liu Bei took Hanzhong, Guan Yu sent troops to attack Xiangyang and Fancheng in order to realize his wish of "Kuangfu Han Room" as soon as possible. Cao Ren, the famous general of Cao Wei, was afraid of Guan Yu and chose not to hold out. Faced with the siege of Guan Yu's Jingzhou soldiers, Cao Ren was in danger, and Cao Cao sent Yu Ban to lead a large army of the Seventh Army to rescue Cao Ren, but Yu Ban was flooded by Guan Yu and the Seventh Army was captured.
After Guan Yu's great victory, Cao Wei's country was shaken and fell into a panic. Cao Wei had many places, preparing to return to Guan Yu, and Cao Cao also wanted to move the capital to temporarily avoid Guan Yu's front. At the critical moment, Sima Yi persuaded Cao Cao to join forces with Sun Quan against Guan Yu, which eventually led to Guan Yu's defeat.
Although Guan Yu had flooded the Seventh Army, defeated by the Ban and threatened Huaxia, Guan Yu had suffered many defeats in his life, for example, in the Battle of Xiangfan, he lost to Xu Huang and Lü Meng in succession, while Zhang Liao had few defeats in his life, and his record was even better than Guan Yu.'s. But Zhang Liao, whether under Lü Hou or Cao Cao, he was always a general, Guan Yu was under Liu Bei, but he was the commander of the army, even if Guan Yu's battle record was not as good as Zhang Liao's, but his status was above Zhang Liao, the two were not at the same level, and the abilities of the two were also different.